Unconditional
by Key and WolfStar-SCA
Summary: See? ReveiwUpdate! Anyway, this is the sequele to In the Eyes of a Child, placed 1.5 years later, and Hope, after a tragity, starts travleing... with Zel! Will he ever tell her who he is in comparison to her? Who does she really take the most after? What
1. Default Chapter

Unconditional SEQULE WARNING!!!!  
  
A young, eight-and-a-half-year-old Miracle-Hope Inverse sat under a tree. Her hip length hair held up like always with her mothers black headband. Over her right ear she wore a charm-gift. She had found the amulet-changed- cloak-clasp hanging in her room the day after she had met that one 'monster' guy.  
  
She wore a blue shirt that matched her hair. The shirt was styled after what she had seen her mother ware, it was sleeved down to the elbows and had a white trim all the way around. She wore red pants and knee high black boots. She had archer's gloves on and a bow and quiver attached to her back. In her right hand she held a staff that could be made for walking. Attached to her left hip was a bag that she used for carrying things.  
  
The tanned bag was an odd design. There was one rather thick strap that came over her right shoulder... that's what she sowed her quiver onto. And it had another thick strap that went around her waist. To that strap she attached her sword that her Aunt Luna had given her, the one that she had no real knowledge on how to use. The bag itself had a blanket in it, her money pouch, some herbs and potions, and a doll that her mother had made for her a long, long time ago.  
  
She was camping just outside the town of her razing, she practiced with her three weapons for hours each day until she was good enough with them that she could get by. You see, not to long ago, Luna had been called out to go and fight someone named Grausherra. No one from either side had survived. Now Hope was just a nuisance to the people of the town. She had no one actually in charge of taking care of her, so everyone was trying to hand the duty onto someone else. She finally decided about a week before that she was going to leave this place as soon as she had gathered up enough strength and supplies.  
  
She heard something up ahead, someone was coming. Hope drew her bow and an arrow, she charged the arrow up with magic, and nocked it, ready to shoot the intruder. To her surprise and delight, who walked through the bushes was the man that was old friends with her mother.  
  
"Hey Mister! It's you!" The man blinked a time or two at the girl standing there with the bow, clearly 100% ready to shoot if that was what was needed.  
  
"Please Hope, my name is Zelgadis... Zelgadis Greywers." Zel informed.  
  
"Zelgadis... hmmm... yep, that sounds like a name." she announced as she returned her bow and arrow to her back.  
  
"I'm glad you approve..." he said, almost bitterly.  
  
"Really? Oh good!" Hope ran up and gave Zel a quick hug then turned back to the fire that she had been preparing.  
  
"Aren't you worried, kid, that I'll attack you or something?" Zel asked skeptically.  
  
"Nope! Your a friend of my mothers, I don't have to worry about you!" She smiled up at him from her place by the firewood.  
  
Zel looked at her worriedly for a moment. "Had it ever crossed your mind that I may have lied?" he asked quietly.  
  
She gave him the most innocent and naïve look he had ever seen in his life, "Why would anyone want to do a thing like that?" she asked. Clearly her mind didn't go there, she couldn't grasp the concept of someone doing something wrong when they say they are doing something good.  
  
"Your getting ready for something, aren't you?" Zel asked as he sat on a fallen log.  
  
"Yep! As soon as I am better with the sword I'm going to be heading out!" she announced proudly.  
  
"You're going on a journey? At your age?" Zel was clearly worried over her safety and wellbeing.  
  
"Well, no one here is looking after me since Auntie Luna died, so I'll die too if I stay here. I'm going out to find somewhere where I can be me and still be someone who grows and improves." she told her father flatly.  
  
"This world wasn't made for children to be travelers! You will get attacked and hurt and possibly even killed if you go off on your own!" Zel was trying his hardest, and failing miserably, to keep the worry and concern out of his voice.  
  
Hope smiled up at him from her place across the small encampment. She got up and ran over to him, clambering onto his lap she rested her arms around his neck and said to him, "See? I told you that you wouldn't lie! It's just not right!" she said with a nod.  
  
"Where do you come up with this stuff, kid?" Zel asked after he had calmed down from the shock of the whole thing.  
  
"What do you mean by that? This is just what makes sense, silly! It's what's right! Can't you tell that?" there was a bitter pain in her voice as she asked him the question.  
  
"Well, yes, of course it's right, but aren't you ever concerned about someone lying to you?" Zel asked, no longer concerned about keeping the fear for the girl's safety out of his voice.  
  
"No. You wouldn't." She told him, mater-of-factly.  
  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
"You don't look like it." she said it so easily, said it so naturally, said it like if that was the most obvious assumption. It was unnerving how, in a split second, her eyes had become as old as time, then just as fast reverted to the young energetic youthful soul that was too new to the world to know better.  
  
Zel could tell the little girl was saying the truth, he felt strong power around the girl, not all of it fully from her. Zel felt a tugging at his heart for the girl. "I'll tell you what, you can come and travel with me until you are ready to travel on your own, would you like that?"  
  
"Hmmm... yep! By the way, when did your face change? It didn't use to look like that." Zel blushed slightly, but replied that he had noticed that he had become cured not long after they had met. As he sat there, it took little more than a moment or two and Hope was asleep in his arms.  
  
[Poor little one... she must be so exhausted! I will let her sleep.] Zel whispered a small healing spell to get the aches and cramps out of the young Inverse' muscles.  
  
***  
  
It was bright and early, nearly at the crack of dawn. An exuberant little girl raced down the road, no fear of danger entering her young, quick-paced heart. Soft eyes watched from behind in an inward joy and love as they watched the little form excitedly run ahead.  
  
Zel nearly called out to her, warn her not to ware herself out, for they had a long walk ahead of them, but he stopped himself. He would do no actions to dim the excitement nor the newness that the world seemed to hold for his young traveling companion. [She will learn...] he thought to himself as he continued on behind her, almost reliving with her the wonder that the world could bring to those who looked on to it with new and unknowing eyes.  
  
The way that she seemed to anticipate what was around every bend, under every rock, hiding behind every tree. She would stop every few meters and wait for him to get so close, then run ahead again.  
  
[When I was still a child,] Zel mused to himself, [I had hair that very hue, and her pale skin humph! both Lina and I shared that quality. Her face is her mothers', but her smile is mine, her energy definitely came from Lina, as do her blood-ruby eyes.]  
  
"Zelgadis, how long till we get to the next town?"  
  
"Maybe another hour or two."  
  
"So far?" her nose crinkled in distaste. "But Zelgadis, we've been walking since sunrise!"  
  
"It's only been three hours."  
  
Hope stopped for a minute or two to count the time off on her fingers. "That will be four hours at least! Do you know that's over half a school day? School is only six hours long!"  
  
Zelgadis found that he had stopped moving. That sounded so much like Lina, it nearly terrified him. Forcing his face into the calm mask that he had warn most of his life. He looked over his shoulder and saw a little Lina staring back at him, looking therowly exasperated.  
  
As he stared at her in shock, a thought drifted into his head. He was pushing her. He was traveling like she was an experienced traveler. Or even worse, like he was alone! He had always moved faster and longer and harder than the others could keep up with, even the ever-energetic Lina, and now he was doing the same thing to his daughter who had joined him on her first ever adventure. "Are you saying your tired?" the question was woven with worry.  
  
Hope pondered the subject for a moment. She was indeed Lina's child. Finally, after much trouble in trying to figure out the answer as if she was being quizzed in a test, she replied with "No." and then as if it were an afterthought, "Not unless you are."  
  
The last statement was quiet, like she didn't know how good his hearing was, like she was trying to keep all hush-hush about the fact she was starting to have trouble keeping up. Zel smiled knowingly at her, she was like him right their, never letting anyone see how week you could be. Or was that also like Lina? "Well, lets stop here and make a bit of breakfast, if that's ok with you..."  
  
Ruby eyes that were not only her own lit up a little and she forced her pace to catch up to him as he wandered off of the road and into a bit of a sheltered area under the branches of the tall spruce and holly trees that surrounded it.  
  
His purse was rather pleased when he found that she had inherited his appetite. He couldn't be asking her to pay for her own stuff like he had done with Lina, she was just too young, but he had doubted how long he could go supporting someone with an appetite like that the young lady who had once stole his heart had.  
  
After they finished their small meal and rested their limbs a bit, they began walking again. This time Hope made an effort to keep in time with him for a while. But as the time drew on, and a good fifteen minutes passed without a single word, she furrowed her brow at him, pouting and putting her hands on her hips.  
  
He glanced at her at her sudden change in stance and attitude, but decided against asking her what was wrong now, working hard not to laugh at her comical expression, but he couldn't help but smile. When she realized that he was fully aware of her impatience for his attention and he was just playing with her by not giving it, she gave a mock scowl, and said, "You don't talk too much, do you Zelgadis?"  
  
As if noticing the belonged silence for the first time, he blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, I suppose I've been traveling alone for so long, that I forgot what silence usually sounds like." He told her.  
  
"But. if you're traveling with no one, then don't you know what silence sounds like all the time?" she asked, not sure she understood his answer.  
  
He smiled kindly. "When alone, you hear things, things that you wouldn't hear when in groups. It makes up for the nothing-sound and is far from silence. Sound is everywhere around us all the time, but you just have to know what to listen for." he told her.  
  
She blinked, trying to figure out if she understood what he had just said. Then, getting determined to see if she could be as travel-worthy as he seemed to be, she shut her eyes tight, and focused all her senesces on the sounds. Fist there was nothing. Then, she heard the song of a bird in a near by tree. Then the reply of another bird, and even more birds farther on. Then the wind through the leaves and tree branches, their shuffled footsteps, the water of a near by stream. Then it went on, to the sound of their breathing, the sound of her heart, of the squirrels, and dear, and the other forest beasts.  
  
Hope's eyes became alit with a fire of excitement as she opened her ruby orbs to her unknown-father. "I hear it! All over the place! All around us! The wind, the animals, the water! The forest. it's so alive!"  
  
He couldn't help but smile. She was fast. It had taken Lina a week to figure out that riddle. This girl was no laughing mater, no matter how she may look at first sight. That much, she had in common with her mother. The childish façade was only skin deep.  
  
***  
  
"Here we are. Lainalten. Not the best of anything, just average in everything." Zelgadis announced.  
  
Hope looked around at the town, half awed, half disappointed. "It looks like Karthwasten Hall." Hope told him. Then went on, "are all towns like this?"  
  
"Wha? No, no. Most are very similar, but each has it's best qualities and personality. And being that we're in Skyrin right now, the towns and cities are all rather similar. But in other countries, other climates, the towns change rather drastically." Zelgadis explained to the young girl that walked at his hip.  
  
"So, where are we going right now?" Hope asked, noticing that Zelgadis seemed to know exactly where he was heading.  
  
"Well, I had to bring a sword of mine to be repaired, so while I was to be waiting, I decided that I may as well go see what you were up to, but now I have to go get my sword back again. Then we'll check out all the weapon and armory shops in the town, to see what sorts of armor and weapons they have for you. Then we'll go and visit the Mage's Guild to get some more potions and see if they have any marks or torcs or something of the like to give you an advantage. Then we'll need to check around at the Inns and taverns to see what sort of work there is in this town, so that we can pay for any magic supplies we need, and still have enough money. Finally, we'll get a room in a nice tavern and get a nice hot meal and then go to bed for the night."  
  
"That's a lot of stuff!" Hope stated, crossing her eyes.  
  
"Well, if it makes you feel better, tomorrow, after we do even MORE job hunting, I'll give you a good hour of sword training practice. Then we'll check around for any possible quest leads and then if we can't find any, we'll go on to the next town and do it all over again." Zelgadis told the eight-and-a-half-year-old with a smile.  
  
So, first chapter of the sequel. What do you people think? Do you like the way I've got him living now? He's been "Cured" if you will, but there's a trick to it. You'll find out about it in a later chapter, I don't know which yet, but if you can guess what I'm thinking of, or give me a good enough alter-idea, I'll give you the preview to the next chapter. How do you like Hope? What do you think that "Power that isn't quite hers" is? If you can guess (or at least come close) to that one, I'll give you the preview to another AU story that I've kinda got stuck on. It's more D&D then even this one'll be, and I didn't even kill the main character. yet. really, when it's me writing it solo, that is SUCH an accomplishment! But anyway, I'm trying to make this story a little less supreme-being then the Anime was, and expect Zel to at least once in a battle convert back to the berserker that he was made to be originally. Well, I'm running out of things to say right now, so Shade and Sweet Water from the Wonderful World of ElfQuest and the bizarre mind of WolfStar_SCA. EQ RULES! 


	2. chapter 2

First off, I have some reviewers to answer  
  
Greaywords-girl: Oh god! I can't believe that I actually forgot to put in the credits on "In the Eyes of a Child" yeah, you guessed it. I had the story about 90% done for over a year, but I couldn't think of how to start it, then I read Bean's story "The Child" and I liked the opening so much that I kinda stole the idea. All in all it's a pretty good story, but I didn't like how he/she arranged a lot of the events, and how he/she ended the story. Personal opinion. Anyway, yeah, thanks for reminding me, else I don't think I would have ever noticed that I left it out.  
  
Kaeru Shisho: True, she did bring his cure. sort of, but there's a twist. You'll find out about that soon. He isn't as cured as everyone might think. but I can't get into that or I'll give away a big part of the plot.  
  
Deep Sea Dolphin: well, it goes back to a long long time ago, about three years ago, actually. When I fist wrote the story, it was intended to be nothing but a one shot. I had it up on my own little website (which no one ever visited so I let it be destroyed) for the longest time. But only out of the endless nagging from my friends did I begin to even debate the thought of making a story out of all the information that I left out of the first one-shot too keep it short enough to be a one shot. So that's all Unconditional really is, is a way to put all the stuff I came up about her and her own powers and on Zel's "cure". But again, I can't get into all of that right now, cause I'll ruin the story.  
  
Now on to the tale...  
  
Days passed to weeks that passed to months. The continual cycle seemed to never end. Travel, buy, sleep, work, train, and travel again. Her home long in the past behind her, no more then a memory, Hope opened her eyes to the early morning sun. They had stuck to the towns so far, the close together rural areas were never more then a half a day's travel between each other.  
  
Hope understood why Zelgadis kept to these places, it was too dangerous for a child to travel in the thick of the wood, and he would never let her do anything dangerous. But today, she would ask. She was nearly nine after all, and she didn't want to be of a nuisance to Zelgadis and any traveling plans he may have had before he took her with him, effectively ending all possibilities.  
  
She came down the steps of the Inn to find Zelgadis, as per usual, already up and having his morning cup of coffee. "Good morning, Zelgadis!" she beamed as she pulled herself into a chair.  
  
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, eyes soft, and continued to drink. This didn't bother Hope. He never said much in the morning. He never really said much of anything, really. But she had gotten long ago use to the sound of the world, and never was bothered.  
  
"I was wondering... is this all that you do? Go from town to town doing work?" she asked, opening up her well-planed talk. She knew he wouldn't likely to answer, but she thought she'd give him a chance anyway.  
  
"Till your stronger." was his simple reply.  
  
"How much stronger, Zelgadis?" she asked, looking up at him with big red eyes that had yet to loose their excitement and innocence. "How will I know when I'm ready?"  
  
He put down his mug and looked at her for a long moment. "Sigh! I was wondering how long it would take for your mother to come out in you. What you're longing for is a way to test what I've taught you, isn't it? You're wanting a Quest." he put the words in her mouth for her. Then he smiled, more to himself then her. "I was expecting this. I've been checking up for simple quests we could do. I think I've found a few."  
  
"Really? What are they?" Hope asked, excited. This had been easier then she had anticipated.  
  
"In Helarchen Creek I've heard that they are having problems with Giant Rats. The North Keep sewers have gremlins, and Riverwood is having problems with rabid wolves. Take your pick."  
  
"Hmmm. Well, they all sound like they could be rather difficult to get around. Giant Rats are poison, and are way stronger then normal rats. But Gremlins come in bunches and are nastier fighters. And if a Rabid Wolf bites you, you'll get rabies too, not to mention that they're well over twice the size of the rats. So I think the rats in Helarchen Creek would be a good first."  
  
"Alright. That'll be a good five or six day's travel from here..."  
  
"No! If we cut through the fields, it will only be three days. That'll be easier."  
  
"But, it's far more comfortable in a bed, and..."  
  
"And it's also far more expensive. We'll get by fine in the fields! They're farmer's fields after all."  
  
When he couldn't come up with a counter, he just said, "Fine. You're right, we can do better time if we cut strait across."  
  
Sensing something was still off, Hope's brow furrowed. She realized something now that she brought up before the thought even fully formed in her head. "I haven't seen you at night before. You always just lock yourself up in your room come dusk. We really must get you out of your anti- social habits. And why are you always so covered up? Winters over, its spring, it'll be my birthday soon. But you still won't get rid of all those layers."  
  
"Like I told you before. I am a monster, I cover myself to keep the world safe."  
  
"I still don't know what that means. You never did give me a decent definition."  
  
"You never have known, have you. I don't know how to explain it to you. Monsters are bad, scary things that don't deserve to live. But every time I tell you that you reply with--"  
  
"But you said you're a monster, and you aren't like that! You're a nice man, Zelgadis, and you're kind and caring and polite and all sorts of other stuff like that! You aren't making any sense, and that's why I can't understand."  
  
"You're too sweet to make sense of the darker things in life. But order breakfast now, and we'll head out."  
  
"Oh, ok! Waiter!! Three pancakes, please! And an order of bacon, two eggs, a slice of ham, and a glass f milk!"  
  
Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. Maybe she was getting her mother's appetite after all? "Are you sure you can eat all that?" he asked, not sure if he was more concerned for her, or his wallet.  
  
"No, of course not! Half of it's for you!" she said with a sweet smile.  
  
Rolling his eyes, Zelgadis cracked a smirk. Sometimes he wondered if she really was Lina's. "I should have known." This was far from the first time that she had done some random act of kindness for some stranger. It was as if her body had no will of it's own and was being governed by some higher power. Like she was too good for her own good. How she could possibly be Lina's at moment's like that, he could never guess.  
  
***  
  
Hope watched as night drew closer, and Zelgadis seemed to get more and more tense. They were out in the middle of a field, far from any houses. The moon would be high in the sky by the time they managed to get to the house just viewable in the distance.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye Zel watched Hope watching him curiously. It always unnerved him, that all knowing look in her eyes, like she could see right down into the depths of his soul and prick out his secrets one by one and examine them all until they were all hers to share as she wished. [Well, this would be the first one.] he mused to himself. [If she want's them, I'll give her the ones that I'm willing to give up first.]  
  
"I think that we should stop for the night soon." He announced.  
  
"Okay." Was her simple reply, as she stopped beside him and they began to take out their sleeping rolls and rations for the night's dinner.  
  
"You were right, this morning, when you said that you hadn't seen me at night. Well, there's a reason for that." He told her, not really sure if he was doing the right thing. [What if she hates you after this? Nonsense, she's beyond all that... heh! To think a little kid's beyond what most adults cant get past. What a world we live in, no?]  
  
When she had waited patiently long enough, she finally piped up and asked, "What's the reason?"  
  
He hesitated. He hadn't meant to, but he just did. He couldn't admit it while looking into those bright red eyes that were so like her mother's. "I..." he couldn't tell her, but he couldn't lie. It was as if she would spot the lie a million miles away. "You'll see when the sun goes down." So. can anyone guess what he might be hiding? Come on people, at least TRY and guess! Who knows, you may even get a new idea in my head and make this go even faster. But the point is, is that if you show me that you're interested in my work; I'll work harder at it. If no one tells me that they're interested, then I think no one wants the story and I go on to come up with new plot lines. So the more reviews, the more of the story you'll get. Can anyone guess what's going to happen next? 


	3. chapter 3

Oh god! The Banana Conspiracy continues! And Tassy wasn't even the starter of it! Sorry it's taken so long to get around to more of this story, but I've been into other things, and just couldn't work on it any more. And Findel, super, super close, but not quite.  
  
Zelgadis helped Hope straiten out her bedroll as the last few rays glistened in the magenta sky, high over head. She still looked at him expectantly every few seconds, waiting for her mystery's answer. But her gaze was making him a little queasy, he even felt himself shifting uncomfortably under the endless stare of two large orbs of fire.  
  
"Zelgadis?" she finally asked, after about ten minutes of silence.  
  
"Yes Hope?" he acknowledged, but did not turn from their cooking rice dinner to look her in the eye. He didn't think he would be able to take it, looking into them even one more time.  
  
"Tell me about my mother.? Tell me a story about her?" Hope asked. She had refrained usually from speaking of Lina. Not from the grief of not having her, oddly enough she had none of that pain, but merely because it seemed that Lina was a chapter in the world's events that was already read. So one need not go back and read it through again, yet instead look only to the next page for more.  
  
But at the question, so unexpected, Zelgadis, unprepared for the flood of emotion that came with the subject, even if it came every time he so much as thought of her, had to stare for long moments at little Hope, before he even comprehended what she had said. "Well, um. sure, I-I guess. what would you like to know.?" he finally found his voice enough to ask.  
  
"Anything. Just what you remember the most, the best." She replied innocently  
  
[The best. what I remember best was waking up next to her that day, but I'm not going to tell that to an eight-and-a-half-year-old!] "Hmmm. that's a tough one. I'm going to have to think about it for a bit." he said, naturally pulling her onto his lap, and resting his arms around her tiny waist, getting into story mode.  
  
He, for most likely the first time ever in his life, did not notice the slight prickle at his skin as the moonlight hit it. He thought only of Lina, and how best to portray her to the daughter who never really knew her. "Well. you see. your mother was at times, the most wonderful person alive, and at times, she was the worst."  
  
At the completely black look of an uncomprehending child, he racked his brain to try and figure out what was a better way to tell what he wanted to get across. "When I first met your mother, back when she was only sixteen (I got the age right, right?), I had been living with my curse for a few years. It was the most terrible thing in the world for me, being cursed, you see, because I had always been so easily accepted wherever I went. I never realized what sort of a gift that was, until I lost it.  
  
"You see, when I had said I would do anything for power, I was making a very bad mistake. I was being greedy, and self-centered, and I wasn't thinking things through like I should have. But my grandfather, Rezo the Red Priest, gave me, in his own twisted way, most likely the biggest lesson of my life. I had been naïve at one point, and just trusted that I would never have to work for acceptance, that in a way was my vanity. I wanted all of my Grandfather's power, but I hadn't wanted to work for it, and he made me look the monster that I really was."  
  
"But you're not a monster, Zelgadis! You're a good man!" Hope contradicted, looking up at him with a mix of concern, and insecure curiosity to what she was being told.  
  
"But I wasn't always like this, and that's why you have to never fall prey to the idea that you can just take the easy way out of things." He told the young child patiently. She nodded obediently, and he continued his tale. "Well, when my curse was placed upon me, I learned that people can be very mean and very cold to those who are different from them, even the people who had known me since I was a baby ran in fear of my new form. I was alone, and no one would accept me, because I was a freakish monster. or at least that was the truth that I let myself be told by Rezo.  
  
"He convinced me that only he, and his most loyal servants would ever see me as anything but a hideous monster, and said that if I helped him cure his blindness, then he would lift my spell. So I helped him, which eventually lead to my meeting your mother. She treated me like no one had in so long, that I had forgotten what it was like to be taken at more then face value. She saw my stony exterior, but was knowledgeable enough that she knew that it had to have been a spell that had done it to me.  
  
"With that knowledge in her mind, she treated me like she treated everyone else, and I think that that act was what saved me. But I had been too corrupted by Rezo while I had been living with him, and I had started down the same path as he, though I wished for the cure to my curse, he had always wanted only to see. But he had used me, and I was scared of corrupting and using your mother and her friends--"  
  
"Weren't they your friends too?" Hope interrupted, staring into sapphire jewels.  
  
"Yes, they were, but at that point I had not the guts to dare think of them like that. I had been hurt too often, you see, I didn't want to be hurt again." He told her.  
  
"Oh." was her only reply.  
  
After waiting a split second to see if she had anything else to say, Zelgadis continued. "I was scared of causing them to become like me, though, and so I tried my best to keep as far away from everyone as I could. I also didn't want to give them any reasons to break off the little friendship that we had. I often would run away, go off on my own so I didn't have to worry about any of them hating me, but I now see that that was the cowards way out. Lina often told me that, but I guess it's just one of those lessons that you have to learn for yourself.  
  
"We traveled together on and off for quite a few years, and the one regret that I had about that, in the long run of it all, was that I both got too close, and didn't get close enough. I should have gone more one way or another. But your mother always seemed to straiten me out at most of the challenging points in my life around her. Though she had a nasty temper, and at times did do quite a bit of unnecessary damage to people."  
  
"What do you mean Zelgadis?" Hope asked.  
  
"Well, there was this one time where she was fighting with a summoned golem, and destroyed the intire city-state. Not to mention all the times that she had beat up on our friends for commenting in ways she didn't like, or because she was told to share her food with others. She often caused all sorts of trouble, and would go looking for fights, but when it came down to the end, she saved this world time and time again. Now I wont lead you to believe that she never asked anything in return for her antics, but I don't think that it was ever on her mind when she was in the process of helping people.  
  
"All in all she was a very wonderful person, Lina, but she let herself be corrupted by material worths, such as money or properties, and power often was a main push behind her looking to carry on when her quests started to seem hopeless." Zelgadis told the young girl.  
  
"So you had the same weakness." pointed out the child on his lap.  
  
"Yes. quite often we did. And though it was something that often at the time made things better, being greedy for power is never a good thing. What the power-hungry don't understand, is that it's not the power itself that they desire, for that will never fill you up, but the real thing your after is to grow and expand. To reach one's ultimate boundaries and push beyond them is an experience that I can't even begin to explain. When your in that situation, you don't feel too awfully good, but something about giving your all on a job, and having everything turn out right, that's what makes it all worth it."  
  
"So your saying. power and aren't what's important in life?"  
  
"That's right. What's important is to expand. To grow and get better, that's the only way that you'll feel complete. And it takes a lot of work, but it pays off in the end, and you wont be a monster either if you use it for what's good." He told her gently.  
  
".Zelgadis. why are you all white?" she suddenly asked. Zelgadis blinked, and brought a hand quickly to his face. His eyes filled with a fear for a moment, and then the fear changed to a strong resolve.  
  
You see, so absorbed was he in telling her the story, that he hadn't noticed it when his creamy skin that was soft and flexible, melted away into a cold, hard white-marble exterior, with silver wired hair and sapphire jewels imbedded in opal for eyes. But Hope had not even given him a worried look as he had transformed, so he had forgotten the time and paid only attention to the child on his lap.  
  
"Well. you remember when I was all blue and covered with those rough stones the first time you met me?" he asked, patiently. She nodded, and he continued with his explanations. "You see, I was all stony because of my curse. I was 1/3 human, 1/3 Mazoku, and 1/3 golem. I was something known as a chimera."  
  
"I heard about them from Auntie Luna! She said that they were really strong creatures!" Hope piped up, showing how smart she already was.  
  
Zelgadis smiled down at the girl. "Yes. well, about the time that I met you," he gave her stomach a poke and was rewarded with a squeal. "I discovered that I was cured, so to speak. Or, at least I appeared to be. But I soon found out that that was just an illusion. Beneath the human skin still laid both Mazoku and Golem, but they have been somehow split now."  
  
"Split? What do you mean? And why aren't you white all the time?" she asked, blue brows furrowing in confusion.  
  
Zel gathered his words within himself, as he ran his fingers soothingly through her blue curls. "Well, I guess I sort of turned in to an onion."  
  
"An ONION??? Ahehehe!! That's silly!"  
  
"Yes. well maybe it is, but it's the truth! The human is just the outer coating, but under it lives the Golem. Always there, strong and protecting. And even though I can not ever see it, beneath the golem, I can still feel the Mazoku live. So even if my looks are that of an average man, it is only, as they say, skin deep." He explained.  
  
Hope looked up at him through her blood red eyes for a long moment, before she asked again, "But why then can you see it only at night?"  
  
He gave a sigh. "I'm not really sure. I think it has to do with the fact that the moon is a power point to illusionary magic. It is the center of the illusionary field, creating illusions as it wishes. Yet as it can make illusions in it's own light, it can take away the illusions of the suns light. Like with werebeasts or unicorns. Their hiding disappears at night, and they are shown in their true form."  
  
".So why then is it only on a full moon that a werebeast or unicorn is returned to it's true form, but for you it's every night?" asked Hope, ever curious for more information, like all young children are.  
  
"Ug!! Enough questions! The moon is high, and we're going to be traveling tomorrow! And if I've learned you well enough by now, you'll be a million questions tomorrow as well!" said Zelgadis, scooping her up in his arms and laying her down on her roll. "Now sleep. We leave at dawn." He told her, tucking her in, before he set up the fire so that it didn't burn out over night, and going to sleep himself. Well, is that an interesting take on his curse or what? Mainly this has just been an information chapter, just showing what has happened to his curse and showing the relationship between father and daughter. It's not the best job I've ever done, but it's at least something. More later hopefully, and as always, if people show interest, we write more! Shade and Sweet Water, WolfStar_SCA. 


End file.
